Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

- 18th Century in Great Britain

Effects on British Literature
- Inspired Romantics
- Shift in thought to thinking about the world mechanically
- Popularization of the novel

Dickens
- Heavy emphasis on social reform
- Poverty common element within his works

Marx
- Why suffering happens in society
- What causes exploitive relationships?
- Social structures driven by economics
- Structure vs. Freewill
- Dialectic materialism

Friedrich Engles
Written to make a point about the current situation of the society within the early Victorian Era. This explains the conditions of the working class are awful and is an attempt to shed light on the awful truth that is the life of workers. During this time period the important thing is that the machines are running smoothly and the continuation of the Industrial Revolution. The workers were packed into tight quarters that only have a life consisting of working, going home to a cramped living space, going to sleep, and the repetition of the same mundane existance. He is explaining that people make little different, all that matters in this society are that the machines run so that the owners can make money and have success.

Thomas Huxley
- Scientific focus
- Doesn't agree with mere 'literary' instruction
     - Latin, Greek, and Bible studies are dead languages and wrong answers to physical world
- All about science and industrial progress
- Believed science was more important than literature
- Truth through works, not texts
- Natural knowledge (science) is the answer to the natural world around us
- Daily lives are shaped by that of science

Matthew Arnold
- Classical education
- Technical processes
- Believed in education through classical methods
     - Latin/Greek/Biblical studies
- Believes science is true only if you can relate it to the texts

Picture Credit found HERE.